John Sharpenstein HAGER

(1818-1890)

Senate Years of Service:

1873-1875

Party:

Democrat

HAGER, John Sharpenstein,
a Senator from California; born near Morristown, in German Valley,
Morris County, N.J., March 12, 1818; completed preparatory studies
and graduated from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton
University) in 1836; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1840 and
practiced in Morristown, N.J.; moved to California in 1849 and
engaged in mining; practiced law in San Francisco; member of the
State constitutional convention in 1849; member, State senate
1852-1854, 1865-1871; elected State district judge for the district
of San Francisco in 1855 and served until l86l; elected a regent of
the University of California in 1871; elected as a Democrat to the
United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation
of Eugene Casserly and served from December 23, 1873, to March 3,
1875; was not a candidate for renomination; member of the State
constitutional convention in 1879; collector of customs of the port
of San Francisco 1885-1889; died in San Francisco on March 19,
1890; interment in Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, Mo.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Stewart, George R.
“John Sharpenstein Hager [1818-1890]: Forty-Niner in the
Social Register.” In The Lives of Eighteen from
Princeton, edited by Willard Thorpe, pp. 232-42. 1946. Reprint.
Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1968.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present